


Always. Constantly. Shirtless.

by brokenstereotype



Category: Maren Morris - Fandom, One Direction (Band)
Genre: All Platonic Relationships Because I Don't Like Playing Favorites, Gen, Group chat, Hendes Friendship, Moran Friendship, Nailee Friendship, Shirtless Niall, Talks Of Insecure Niall, narry friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 11:54:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15640236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokenstereotype/pseuds/brokenstereotype
Summary: Describe @NiallOfficial in 3 words.





	Always. Constantly. Shirtless.

"Is your money no good for shirts?" Maren asks. She can count the number of times she's walked into a room and was faced with a shirtless Niall, but she would need each of the band's hands and feet, as well as the crew. Maybe some of the audience members. 

Niall's slumped on the backstage couch, fingers resting on his guitar but not making a move to play it. She often wonders if Niall thinks his guitar is a good substitute for a shirt.

Niall just grins lazy over the back of the couch at her.

She picks up one of the stray tour shirts tossed unto the table amongst half empty water bottles and wrappers of energy bars. When she tosses the shirt to him, Niall's smile gets toothy and he uses the shirt to wipe away the sweat from his forehead and then throws it to the end of the couch. 

 _Deep breaths_ , Maren reminds herself.

In the beginning, she had been ecstatic about accompanying the tour. She'd sent Niall a handmade gift basket in thanks and gratitude; bottle of cologne that she had saw in his dressing room, an assortment of healthy snacks (just so she could see the grimace on his face and the tight  _thank you_ he forced out through clenched teeth.), as well as a shirt that she'd had made with the tour dates on the back and the name of the tour in script writing on the front. It was very artistic, in her opinion, though she may be biased since she designed it. Suspiciously, it's been a guest in each and every one of Niall's dressing rooms during the tour, yet she has never seen him wear it.

Anyways, of course she's grateful for being here and she will never forget the experience. 

But, as it is, she could also do without crashing from the high of an amazing audience by witnessing Niall and his bandmates all sweaty and gross, twisting at each other's nipples and wiping their sweat all over the place. Those are the times that she stands still in horror while a voice in her head groans,  _what have you gotten yourself in to??_

At least the band wear shirts. Small miracles.

It happens so often enough that Maren could fill in all of Niall's freckles and imperfections on a blank print out of his torso. If you asked,  _does Niall ever shave his happy trail?_ The answer would be an easy no. It used to freak her out a bit before, how unreserved and confident he is with his body. But now it's as familiar to her as the words to  _Seeing Blind_.

She doesn't notice it at first, but then she starts paying attention to the small, almost confused frowns Niall gets when the band don't immediately start stripping once they get off stage and head to their small room in the back. He'll toss his shirt aside and then look around the room as if he expects someone else's to clip him in the face. Nobody removes any articles of clothing and Niall looks lost.

 _Interesting_ , she thinks. 

Then again, Niall  _did_ live hand and hand for years with four other teenage boys. She doesn't know their exact depth of their relationships, but boy to be a fly on  _that_ wall. They'd been together for five years but to them probably felt like a decade with how often they'd lived in one confined bubble and anyone who paid them any attention could see how close they were, it wouldn't surprise her if peeling out of their sweat soaked clothes had been a sort of post show ritual for them. To be fair, Niall and his band now haven't been together for nearly half of how long One Direction had lasted. They may get along well enough, but it's easy to see that they haven't reached the stage of contemporary stripping as a form of bonding.

Never one to let her curiosities sit and fester, she pulls up her contacts and scrolls to one of her newest additions. 

 _ **> Harry Styles:** _(Boring, yes. But she decided against the exclamation point on the off chance that he would ever catch sight of it, god forbid.)

_was Niall always shirtless around you guys or is this a new development?_

She hits send and then scrolls through twitter to pass the time. They're on the road for the night, nothing but the endless miles of highway and her own blessedly quiet bus to keep her company.

The notification pops up as she's idly reading replies on her latest backstage picture.

**_< Harry Styles:_ **

_not really. only for sleep but he never liked to be without a shirt around_ _Liam. those muscles are like their own playground ha_

She reads the text over five times and still doesn't know how to respond. 

Niall often makes jokes at his own expense over his teeth before the braces straightened them out, but whenever he sees someone looking at a picture with his crooked teeth on display, his face hardens out and he's silent for at least an hour. She'd never considered - well, Niall is a man of personal space and mystery, but the thought of Niall being self conscious about himself never crossed her mind. She tries to look for it in his smile, hidden beneath his full body laughs, the way he sings with everything in him.

Her fingers are typing out a new text before she can stop herself.

**_> Hailee Steinfeld:_ **

  _shirtless niall_

Her finger hits the send button prematurely and as she's typing out the rest, the notification for Hailee's reply shows up.

**_< Hailee Steinfeld:_ **

_yes_

That's it. That's the text. As if she even asked a question. 

**_> Hailee Steinfeld:_ **

_always?_

She hopes that her texts are reading through and Hailee doesn't think that she's asking her opinions on Niall being shirtless. How awkward.

**_< Hailee Steinfeld:_ **

_lol_

That's - not helpful. But then her phone buzzes three consecutive times and she frowns as she thumbs open the message.

_Shawn Mendes has been added to the group_

**_< Hailee Steinfeld:_ **

_yes always_

_I swear he's allergic to cotton or something_

Maren finds herself grinning, thankful that she's alone in her bunk where no-one can see the manic grin illuminated by the glow of her phone screen.

**> _Hailee Steinfeld:_**

_he always looks so upset when no one else takes theirs off lol_

She awaits Hailee's reply, but instead what she gets is a sentence that makes her grin disappear.

**_< Shawn Mendes:_ **

_He's worked hard for his body, he deserves to be able to show it off_

Oh. That kind of makes her feels like really - like shit.

**_< Hailee Steinfeld:_ **

_he knows he looks good *insert eye roll gif*_

Maren winces at the next reply.

**_< Shawn Mendes:_ **

_does he_

There's no punctuation. Shawn is a very punctual texter. Which means it's rhetorical. Fuck.

**_> Hailee Steinfeld, Shawn Mendes:_ **

_Oh_

She switches over to her thread with Harry.

**_> Harry Styles:_ **

_it wasn't because of Liam was it_

She holds her breath. Suddenly, the recycled air in the bus makes her nauseous. She thumbs through Niall's twitter with an ever growing sense of guilt and something short of pity making her eyes wet.

**> _Hailee Steinfeld_**

_thanks Mendes, now I feel like a bitch_

Yeah. That makes two of them.

**_> Harry Styles_ **

_no_

Yeah. Fuck.

* * *

 

The next time she sees Niall after the show has ended, she almost doesn't recognize him. 

He's wearing a shirt.

"Hey," He leans in close to her and says softly. His eyes are soft and sad. "Can we talk for a minute?" His thumb hooks over his shoulder weakly at the corner of the room unoccupied. She nods a bit to earnestly and follows along after him with lead weights in her shoes.

He's got his eyebrows pulled low and his arms across his chest. She's never seen him this guarded. He scratches at his scalp and keeps his eyes to the floor.

"Do you have a problem with me walking around without a shirt?" He asks. It's void of all emotion and his face only pinches tighter together.

"No!" She hurries to assure. Her loud pitch catches the attention of a few people and she lowers her voice. "It caught me off guard at first because I'm not used to being around that type of display so frequently. But, no. It's - it doesn't bother me."

His face softens a bit at that, though he still doesn't look placated.

"It's just, Shawn was texting me last night about - things. And it seemed like you were talking to him about it or something." He's mumbling. Oh lord, she is a terrible person. This is like kicking a baby rabbit.

She swallows and bites the bullet.

"Can I ask you something." She asks. "I mean, I  _did_ ask him about it, but I was just curious. Cause I thought that maybe it was something you did with One D. But then Harry said you didn't-"

"You asked  _Harry_ _?_ " He sounds betrayed. Oh no. He shakes his head and takes a step back as if he's going to leave.

"Yes, but - I don't know, I was worried?" She says uncertainly. Niall blinks at her. He's still one backwards step away from bailing.

"You're insecure," His face turns blank.  _Nice_ one, Maren. Like he's not heard those two words as many times as his name. "I mean, you were. Insecure. And I can relate to that because I was too. I didn't like the way my body looked and being in an industry filled with what seem like perfect people, it can really chip away at you and knock you down."

Niall settles his footing. Now he just looks resigned and understanding. Okay. Crisis averted.

"I think it's amazing that you feel so confident in your body. You  _should_. You are so gorgeous in your skin and it has nothing to do with how your body looks on the outside. The way you make a room full of people feel, that's more important than your appearance. But I do understand the need to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and smile back at your reflection. I  _do_ and I'm sorry if I ever made you feel uncomfortable for it." She says. She wants to hug him, wrap her smaller arms around him and squeeze him until the words soak into his skin.

Niall nods, bites at his lip though it does nothing to hide the tremble that waves over them. He's the one to pull her into his body, presses his face against her neck and breathes.

"Thank you." He says. It holds more meaning than just those two words.

When they pull back, she pinches the fabric of his shirt between two fingers and scrunches her nose.

"I don't know about you," She meets his eyes and grins. "But this fabric looks  _itchy_. Should probably just take it off." She teases. He smiles. It's so beautiful and she didn't realize how truly awful it is to not see it on his face until she was the one to wipe it away.

"If you wanted to see my body, you just had to ask." He sniffs and tugs the shirt over his head.


End file.
